Chapter 11

Caroline Fricke was not swayed by the gentle chiding she received from her mother concerning Tommy Bledsoe. Maybe the man wasn’t another Lennie Small from “Of Mice and Men”, but there was certainly something suspicious about how he had waltzed into town and insinuated himself into her parents’ life. Not to mention he had seduced a number of town women. Maybe, she thought, he was another Charles Manson, the crazy eyed guru just arrested a few days ago for being involved in the murder of actress Sharon Tate. Actually, Manson did fit better, because Manson also had a bevy of mesmerized women doing his evil bidding.

The Monday morning after her party, Caroline borrowed her mother’s car and drove to the library to talk with Ruth Silverman about it. She chose the librarian, because Ruth was a sophisticated and educated young woman who was not likely to be swayed by the charms of some cowboy drifter.

Ruth listened to Caroline’s concerns and nodded understandingly as the younger woman expressed her misgivings. She could sympathize with Caroline’s feelings, as she ruefully recalled her own assumptions about Thomas.

“I understand what you are saying, Caroline, and I know all too well your qualms about Thomas. I had them myself when I first met him. However, your mother is absolutely right about him. He is the nicest, sincerest and sweetest man I’ve ever met. Yes, he is emotionally underdeveloped, and yes, he sometimes acts immature. But I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, because Thomas doesn’t have a big ego or a legion of bad habits and misconceptions. When he tells me he loves me, I know he is telling the unconditional, unvarnished truth.”

As a way of example, Ruth related to Caroline her date with Tommy on Friday night. She left out her trip to the feed store. Caroline smiled at the story; that’s exactly how she felt a man should act if he truly loved you. However, she was still skeptical on several points.

“What about the other women I saw him with? That’s a strange way to show you he loves you,” Caroline argued.

Ruth smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

“Tommy loves those other women as much as he loves me, that’s the way he is. He is sweet and tender, and he makes us all feel special without stifling us with demands. As a matter of fact, we have to be careful what we say around Tommy, because he would literally give us anything we wanted or do anything we asked. What more could we want? Besides, we are all close friends and there is no jealousy between us.”

Caroline thought it strange that four women would so happily share one man, but her mind was at least at ease about Tommy being a danger to her parents. Her worries were suddenly replaced with curiosity. She did not like it that there was something about him the other women saw and she didn’t. Her naturally inquisitive mind set about solving the Tommy problem as soon as she walked out of the library.

Tommy had fun the ten days leading up to Christmas, as he shopped for gifts for his friends and participated in community events that celebrated the holidays. Tommy delighted in volunteering for everything. He sang in the church Christmas program, acted as one of Santa’s helpers at the VFW Children’s Christmas Party, and rode on a fire truck dressed as an elf for the Elk’s lodge parade. He rang a bell and watched over the donation kettle for the Salvation Army in front of the Piggly Wiggly for six hours, and collected gifts for Toys for Tots. Tommy also made two shopping excursions to Brownwood, and one all the way to Dallas to find gifts for his friends. By now, there were a lot of people who considered Tommy a friend, and Tommy wholeheartedly returned the sentiment.

While they had been at Caroline’s homecoming party, one of those friends invited Tommy to dinner for the following Tuesday. So as soon as he was finished with his day at the feed store, Tommy zipped home, showered, threw on some clean clothes and drove out to Connie’s. He arrived at Conchita Delgado’s Happy Endings Ranch at six-thirty on the dot. Tommy prided himself in always being on time.

Conchita had been as nervous as a new bride as she carefully followed the recipes that Rita and Betty Lou gave her. Conchita Delgado was a lot of things, but a good cook wasn’t among them. Still, she was motivated and determined, so armed with three times the quantities of the ingredients called for by the recipes, she had slaved away in the kitchen all afternoon. When Tommy rapped his knuckles on her door, she was just sliding the biscuits out of the oven. She quickly flopped the cookie sheet up onto the stove top, turned off the oven and dashed to the door.

Tommy gave her a big smile when she threw open the door. He gave her a kiss and complimented her on how nice she looked. Conchita returned his smile and thanked him for the compliment. She was wearing a nice knee-length dress that flattered her figure without showing a lot of skin. She had two inch heels on her feet and her hair was loose and brushed until it shined. It was, however, a completely different story underneath the demure frock. Connie was loaded for bear in a Fredrick’s of Hollywood bra, panty and garter belt set in hot pink satin. She was determined that tonight would be the night.

Conchita sat Tommy down on the couch with a Lonestar and some peanuts, then swayed back to the kitchen to put the meal on the table. She was gratified that everything had turned out so well, until she saw the biscuits she’d just baked. Instead of light and fluffy perfection, she had created golden brown hockey pucks. Resourceful Conchita had been prepared for that eventuality, however. She dumped the flat, rock hard biscuits into the trash and deftly opened a package of Merita brown and serve rolls. She threw the rolls on the same cookie sheet and popped them in the oven.

Conchita put the food on the table six quick minutes later, and fetched Tommy to the dining room. Tommy was probably the first person to ever have country fried steak and lumpy mashed potatoes by romantic candle light with a beautiful movie star. Tommy enjoyed the heck out of the meal, and went to great pains to make sure Connie knew that. Conchita acknowledged his compliment, then went about subtly seducing him. It was probably Conchita’s most outstanding performance ever, as she acted the part of a perfect soubrette. It worked, though, so for dessert, Tommy had himself a heaping helping of hot Hungarian.

How they ended up in the bed together was educational for Conchita. It was educational, because of the way Tommy orchestrated the event instead of vice versa. She was very pleasantly surprised when Tommy took charge and pulled her into his lap as he sat on the couch. Somehow he nimbly removed her dress while she wriggled on his lap. When she was down to her pink lingerie, he stood up with her in his arms.

“Where’s your bedroom?” he growled.

She shivered and fluttered her hand weakly toward the hall.

“Last door on the right,” she cooed.

In Conchita Delgado’s actress mind, she was the stunningly beautiful Scarlett O’Hara, and Tommy was a most handsome Rhett Butler.

Tommy adroitly maneuvered them through her bedroom door and gently laid her on her bed. She watched with wide and wild eyes as he started stripping off his clothes. When his shirt came off, she avidly took in how his broad shoulders and chiseled chest tapered down to a washboard stomach and narrow hips. She quickly sat up and twisted her hands behind her back to unfasten her bra. Tommy gave her a look and shook his head.

“Uh-uh,” he said forcefully. “It’s too close to Christmas to let someone else unwrap my present.”

She fell back on the bed with a smile on her lips. Tommy wasn’t smooth or suave, but his sincere honesty made her tingle all over.

Soon enough, Tommy was naked and working on making her the same way. Conchita was a very sensual and highly sexed woman. She discovered masturbation at the age of eleven, and shortly after she turned twelve, she found that boys could make her feel even better. Conchita loved to fuck, and she was multi-orgasmic. Until she met Tommy, she had used and discarded men as if they were expendable sex aids. Her husband Beau had known about her nature and let her find satisfaction where she could. She became the predatory queen of one-night stands, and directed each encounter to suit her needs.

Conchita’s body was constructed in a manner that was a perfect compliment to her supercharged libido. Her clit was larger than normal, extending from its protective hood in a way that allowed it constant stimulation during intercourse, and yet it was not overly sensitive. Consequently, it did not take a Casanova to get her off multiple times.

Her tried and true methods did not seem to work with Tommy, however, because instead of climbing on her and riding her hard and fast as she wanted him to do, he took his time and made slow gentle love to her. He took her to the very edge of an orgasm and then did just enough to keep her hanging on the precipice. Her groans of frustration soon turned to keening wails, though, as Tommy finally took her over the top. She could not remember ever coming that hard. Yet before she could really savor the moment, he started on her again.

Two Trojans and forty-five minutes later, Tommy hopped out of bed and fetched her a glass of ice water. By then, she’d cum so much and so hard, her stomach muscles hurt. Her hair was plastered to her sweaty face and her body was limp as boiled spaghetti. She sat up and gratefully gulped the water, as Tommy used a warm, damp hand towel to gently wipe the sweat off her. She handed him the empty glass and fell back on the bed with a contented sigh.

“You aren’t leaving are you?” she asked hopefully.

He smiled and took one of her large firm breasts in his hand.

“Are you kidding? The night is young and we’re just getting started,” he replied.

She looked at him incredulously and gasped as his head dipped down between her legs. After the second swipe of his tongue, she moaned and reached for his head to pull his face tighter to her core.

“You are going to kill me,” she hissed.

Tommy popped his head up and gave her a grin.

“Maybe, but you’ll die happy,” he said.

Well, of course she didn’t die, unless you count the ten or twelve ‘little deaths’ he coaxed out of her. At midnight, she slipped on her robe and walked him to the door. She had asked him to spend the night, but he reluctantly turned her down.

“Next time, I’ll bring a change of clothes so I can go to work from here, okay Connie?”

She kissed him passionately and held the door for him.

“You have no idea how happy that will make me,” she said.

The trichotomy between Tommy Bledsoe’s natural intelligence, physical age and emotional age, put him in some awkward predicaments. Sometimes it was just some funny embarrassing statement that slipped out of his mouth. However, other times, Tommy’s reaction to something that an adult would know how to handle, caused him more serious problems. That was one reason everyone looked out for him. Thursday of the week before Christmas was the first of two incidents that proved the point.

Tommy did not have any experience to draw from on how he should conduct himself, so he formed his values from reading and observing people around him. He read westerns, of course; he loved stories of the old west. He also read biographies of great men. In his choice of reading material, the story’s heroes were brave, kind and resolute. They were protective of their friends, treated women and children with respect and kindness, and were loyal to a fault. Harold Fricke, Ben Crawford and Ramon Salazar, all of his adult male role models acted like that too. Tommy thought that if he could live his life half that well, he’d never be unhappy. So when the first incident took place at the Brantley Savings and Loan, Tommy acted in the manner he thought any of what Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘true men’ would.

A second cause for Tommy’s behavior was the inability that most teenager boys have in understanding the consequences of foolish actions. For a time, many boys and young men think they are invincible, and that nothing bad could possibly happen to them. Tommy Bledsoe was one of those boys.

On Thursday afternoon, Tommy took off from work a few minutes early and drove down the block to the savings and loan. He pulled up to the bank right before closing time to deposit a check from the Fort Sam Credit Union into his normal checking account. He needed more Christmas shopping money, because he still had a few gifts yet to purchase. He parked behind a nondescript, mid-sixties beige Impala. He rolled down his window and turned to Rex who was sitting in the passenger’s seat. Tommy took Rex to work with him, now that he had a way to get him there.